The Whole Design Is Visible In Every Facet

This week's big event was Gabriel's belated Bucharest birthday (a local geek/videogame convention we call B3) and cut-your-hair-and-seal-your-fate ceremony.  First stop, though, was my parents' hotel, because there was another cache of birthday presents there.   It also got us out of the house so that Tania could prepare for the upcoming Romanian shenanigans.

Best movie I've ever tasted

Gabe has already been absolutely showered in presents and toys, and there's more to come.  I guess this is what Io and I get for making everyone in both our families wait so long for the first grandchild / nephew / whatever, but I swear I don't know what we're going to do with all this stuff.  He has boxes and boxes of toys, and in a couple months we are hopefully moving the two of them and all their worldly possessions back to LA in a couple of suitcases.  When we were talking about getting pregnant Io and I both agreed that we were not going in for the whole buy-a-zillion-toys and ten-zillion-specialized-pieces-of-baby-equipment thing, but it seems like the rest of the world is going there for us.

Dad, mom, Io & Gabe, STELLA!!, g-grandma Negru, Reli, g-grandpa Negru

Eventually we headed back to the bloc for Romanian festivities.  Tania threw a moderately sized party: us, my parents, all three great-grandparents, Aunt Reli,  our family-friend/babysitter Stella ("STELLA!!"), and godparents Cati and Ovi.  There was much music and laughter and Romanian that went far too fast for me to follow, plus my amusing and halting attempts to help with translation duties (luckily, Reli, Tania and Ovi all speak a good amount of English).

As required by Romanian law, Tania laid out one hundred and twenty times the necessary amount of food.  And then later in the evening we had mici (sausages) as well.  A good time was had by all.

Gabe also got several more birthday presents from everyone.  Many of them make irritating noises or sing annoying songs.  Thanks, Romanians!  After a couple hours of appetizers and socializing (Romanian parties are way long) it was time for the two main events.  

First up: hair-cutting!  In Romanian tradition a baby's hair can't be cut until his first birthday.  That's why Gabe is always sporting a samurai-style topknot.  Some babies have basically no hair to cut even at one year, but Gabe was born with an entire head of hair and it's been growing strong ever since.  The first haircut is a big deal and has to be done by the godparents.

The importance of it was a culture-shock moment for me.  When Io and I were planning my visit, and trying to coordinate having Jason and Rachel come out, and my parents come out, and going to Turkey, and going to Sighisoara, and everything else, it started to become apparent to me that there was no good way to do all this stuff and still be in Bucharest for Gabe's first birthday.  The problem was solved when Io told me that her mom wouldn't be put out if we were in Sighisoara on Gabe's birthday.  I was floored.  To me the first birthday was huge.  I had flown halfway around the world to be here for it, and later on my parents decided they would, too.  But in Romanian tradition, the haircut ceremony is what matters.  It's like the way they don't really make a big deal about Christmas, but Easter is hugely important.

The first part of the ceremony, traditionally, is that the godparents give the baby's parents a milking cow or milking sheep.  I had been very clear with Ioana and Ovi: under absolutely no circumstances were we taking possession of any livestock.  Luckily, Ovi had a solution.

ELECTRIC SHEEP

This sheep is particularly awesome because it is not just stuffed, it makes noises and stuff.  After being worried that we were going to get saddled with a farm animal, instead we were given a robot.  Super-awesome!

Gabe held up pretty well during the hair-cutting.  He wasn't happy about having someone come at him with a pair of scissors, but he didn't completely freak out or anything.  I kept telling him, "You should have seen the wedding, kid.  This dude held a knife to my throat."

I don't think it helped.

And then it was done!

Mothers, hide your daughters

After the hair-cutting came my favorite part of the whole party: foretelling the future!  In Romanian tradition, on the day of the hair-cutting the baby predicts his own future, like a souped-up version of Puxatawney Phil.  Crystal balls being fairly pricey, the traditional augury is a tray full of common objects.  Each one symbolizes some possible future (usually a job, but sometimes other things).  You hold the tray in front of the baby and allow him to pick three things.  Whatever he picks, that's his destiny.

"I am your density."

Although the composition of the talismans on the tray can vary, our tray had the following things:

Flower  (green thumb / farmer)

Holy book  (priesthood)

Mirror  (vanity)

Comb  (barber)

Car  (driver)

Bread  (always have food and shelter)

Money  (wealth)

Chocolate  (sweet life)

Glass of tuica  (drunkard)

Perfume  (dandy)

Pen  (intellectual)

Makeup  ("coquette", Ioana said.  How the hell does she know that word?  Plus Gabe is a boy)

Ring  (material assets; different than money)

Telephone  (talker / chatterbox)

Keys  (leadership)

Trowel  (builder / engineer)

Book  (learned person / writer)

Computer mouse  (I put this one there.  Gamer!)

Wrench  (mechanic)

Stone  (geologist / earth)

Thread  (weaver)

Paintbrush  (painter / artist)

Scissors  (tailor)

Syringe  (doctor / nurse)

Pliers  (fixer of things)

Tambourine  (musician)

Drumroll...

And so, with great fanfare and anticipation, we put the tray in front of Gabe to let him make his three selections.

Choice number 1:

TROWEL!  So that means some sort of builder or engineer.  We brought the tray up again and held our breaths.

Choice number 2:

Intellectual, indeed

PEN!

Although I normally would think of this as symbolizing a writer or something similar, apparently the book is for that.  A pen indicates a thinker or intellectual or scholar.  Combined with the trowel, the family said this probably meant he was going to be an architect.









We brought the tray up for a final choice, to my chants of "Mouse!  Mouse!  Mouse!  Mouse!"  But instead Gabe went with...

MONEY!  It's hard to see in the photo because he's holding it edgewise to the camera (in his left hand), but apparently Gabe is going to be a very successful architect.

So there you go.  Gabe's future, all set out before he can even walk.  This whole ceremony was actually really fun.  We all had a good time.  And who knows, maybe he will end up a successful architect.

More hours of talk, celebration, and eating followed.  

Followed finally (finally!!) by yet another birthday cake.  We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him in Romanian and then again in English, and Io helped him blow out his candle.  Everyone got a piece of cake and there was yet...more...celebrating.

Eventually the celebrations ended and people started heading home.  Since this is probably the last time I'll see them this visit (I leave early Wednesday) I said goodbye to great-grandma and great-grandpa Negru, as well as to great-grandma Gomoiu and the godparents (unfortunately this was the only time I got to see them this whole trip.  Next time, nasule!)

Sunday was my parents' last day here (they actually left early Monday morning, but Sunday was the last day we saw them), so we had mostly set it aside for spending time with them.  We went to the park, we all took naps, and we just hung out at the bloc.

My parents took us all out to lunch at Cantina Verde, a very nice restaurant that is walking distance from Tania's place.  I once again got the best meal out of everyone.  When will they ever learn.

We went back to the bloc and said goodbye to my mom and dad, who graciously agreed to take some of our stuff back with them since they get to take extra bags for free in business class.

The whole saying goodbye to them thing started to really drive home how soon it is that I myself will be saying goodbye (two more days).  The only good thing is that stuff seems to be moving reasonably fast with the INS paperwork so, with some luck, hopefully it won't be too much longer before Io's visa is finalized and they can come home.

Moment of Zen: